Utilities and grid operators have developed a variety of ways to improve reliability and increase economic efficiency in regional energy markets. To support the scheduling of energy on power systems, operators normally require ancillary services. Ancillary services products address short-term imbalances in electricity markets by dispatching resources within seconds or minutes of an unacceptable imbalance, and demand response practitioners have a role to play in helping to balance the system on a short-term basis. Ancillary services may include a number of different operations which include frequency support, voltage support, and system restoration. To encourage the individual participants of the market to provide these services, ancillary services markets are evolving.
It is difficult for some kind of renewable energy power plant, e.g. wind or tidal or wave or solar power plants, to qualify and be accepted for ancillary service markets. This is mainly caused by the uncertainty of the energy (from wind or tide or waves or sun, respectively) resource, but also by the trading horizon of the different markets.
The above considerations may be extended also to storage plants, whose energy capability would depend on the level of charge or discharge.
This will delay the entry of these kinds of power plants into the ancillary markets even if such plants potentially would be able to deliver some ancillary services at a competitive rate to the utility consumers.
For an electric power plant including a plurality of renewable energy devices, such as wind turbines, it is therefore desirable to provide a method for validating the plant as an ancillary service provider.